Chapter 111: Coincidence
Chapter 111: Coincidence
Inside the antique store in the city-state of Prand, in the lower city, Duncan sat behind the counter with a copy of the city-state’s weekly newspaper in his hand, looking as if he was absently reading the contents of the paper.
Suddenly, his eyes blinked twice and his eyes, which had been somewhat lax, refocused, then he glanced at the newspaper in his hand and bashfully turned it upside down.
The newspaper’s front page headline printed the big thing that had happened in the city-state recently – His Excellency Valentine, the Bishop of the Cathedral of the Deep, would be presiding over a large-scale consecration event in the near future, when more than a dozen churches all over the city would be ringing large bells and pulling sirens, in order to call upon the storm goddess’s power to rain down blessings on the city.
And as a prelude to this benediction, Consul Dante Wayne expressed his congratulations to the cathedral last night with a gift ……
The face of that city-state consul was printed on the front page of the newspaper – it was a middle-aged man with a serious expression, gray hair, tall and thin, and the most striking thing about it was that he had a rather frightening scar on his face, and a prosthetic eye had replaced his original eyeball.
That was obviously a mark left by some fatal accident.
Duncan’s eyes slowly scanned the newspaper, but the face of the young Inquisitor named Vanna came to mind – the Inquisitor also had a scar near his eye, which didn’t affect his vision, but was striking enough to be noticeable.
He recalled the information he had gathered recently:
The city-state’s consul, Dante Wayne, was the uncle of Inquisitor Vanna, and the scars on their faces were said to have originated from the same accident eleven years ago, when Dante Wayne and Vanna Wayne were injured by a mob during a factory leak and a cultist riot in the Sixth Block near the Crossroads neighborhood, leaving them permanently scarred. Dante Wayne and Vanna Wayne were injured by the rioters, and both were permanently scarred by the accident, which prompted them to become staunch supporters of the Church of the Deep, and to actively fight against the cults in the city-state. ……
This information is not a secret in the city-state, it belongs to what can be found in both official records and folk rumors, and this is what one hears when casually asking around in the lower city.
Another eleven years ago, another “factory leak” in the sixth neighborhood ……
Duncan silently turned the newspaper to the next page, while his mind combined and sorted out the various clues he had been collecting in recent times.
The sun shard, the fire in Nina’s memory, Nina’s recent nightmares, the accident that happened to Judge Vanna and Consul Dante back then, as well as the young girl “Shirley” who seems to be investigating the truth, with an unknown origin. …… All of these things revolve around the “factory leak” in the Sixth Street District eleven years ago. All these things revolve around the “factory leak” in the sixth neighborhood eleven years ago, and now the Sunists are stirring up in the city, and the “Sun God” behind them is a burning thing that seems to be an evil god.
And it’s begging for help.
Duncan wasn’t going to deal with the sun god just yet, but he was worried that this nameless fire burning in the darkness would reach Nina.
The dove had been released by him early in the morning to search the city-state for clues to the cultists, and was still wandering about, Nina was upstairs packing up her books, and would be leaving for school in a few moments, and the street outside the store was coming alive with the sounds of carriages and horses and people passing through the doorways, bringing with them a fresh sense of life and energy.
Light footsteps suddenly came from the stairs, the old wooden floorboards made a slight creaking sound, Nina trotted and appeared in Duncan’s line of sight, she was carrying her school bag in her hand, the other hand grasped the bread ready to serve as lunch, “Uncle! I’m going to school!”
“Run slowly, don’t fall, it’s still early,” Duncan gave the girl a helpless look, then remembered something, “By the way, today is the day you go to the museum?”
“Right! I have a date with a classmate!” Nina looked back with a bright smile on her face, “I won’t come back for lunch, I’ll go straight to the museum with my classmate, so you can get yourself something to eat.”
“Got it got it got it,” Duncan smiled and waved his hand, and again urged, “Slow down, pay attention to the car on the road ……”
“Okay okay bye uncle!”
Accompanied by the girl’s clear shouts, light footsteps, and the jingling of the bell at the door, Nina’s figure disappeared from Duncan’s line of sight.
She crossed the road in front of the antique store and darted into the morning light of the Prendergast morning.
Duncan watched Nina leave, remembering the previous “home visit” and what the old Mr. Morris had told him:
Nina had very few friends at school, and most of her classmates didn’t really care for her.
But even if she had fewer friends, it seemed that one or two of her classmates were on good terms with her, and someone was willing to invite her to go to the museum with them, and she seemed to be having a good time, which was of course a good sign.
He’d already asked around yesterday, and that classmate Nina had gone to the museum with was a quiet girl who also lived in the lower city, and the two had only recently become friends and were on good terms.
Duncan put down the newspaper in his hand.
Nina had already gone to school and wouldn’t be back this afternoon, and today was a weekday, so the antique store shouldn’t have much business. It s a bit of a waste of time to stay here and watch the store, maybe take a walk around town and …… investigate some things along the way.
Duncan in his mind to sense the current location of Ai Yi, gave the pigeon “continue to patrol” command, then put on his coat, and hung the temporary rest of the wooden sign on the door, lock the store door, and then went to the nearby station.
The station is very crowded, this time is the peak of the people riding the bus to work and school, Duncan mixed in the crowd, came to the station next to the standing sign, looking at the above route map.
His eyes fell on one of the lines – it had a location clearly printed on it: the sixth neighborhood.
The place where the official records said there had been a “factory leak.”
Duncan withdrew his gaze and waited patiently in the crowd as buses came and went, several steam-powered buses taking half the people on the platform, and it was a long time before he finally saw an old bus wobbling toward the end of the road, the number plate on the front of the bus indicating that it was the one he was waiting for.
Duncan followed a large group of people as they squeezed onto this bus.
The old bus was overcrowded, with citizens rushing to work filling all the seats and corridors, and Duncan silently squeezed his way to the back door and waited patiently for the bus to start.
With a hoarse, strained roar from the steam engine, the heavily overloaded bus started, and the conductor began to trudge through the sardine-like crowd, greeting people as they bought their tickets and coming near Duncan, his dark blue uniform contorted by the crush.
“Sixth block.” Duncan gave the ticket agent a friendly smile.
However, the ticket agent, who was squeezed five times, was visibly stunned when he heard Duncan’s voice and asked as if he didn’t react, “Huh? Where are you going?”
Duncan frowned, “Sixth block – I saw it on the route map, isn’t this train going?”
The ticket agent froze again, then looked up at the route map posted on the carriage next to him, before nodding hurriedly as if waking up from a dream, “Oh oh, of course I’m going, not many people usually go there, I’d forgotten …… four pesos.”
Usually not many people go to the sixth neighborhood? The accident has been over eleven years ago, the factory around the block has not been rebuilt well?
Duncan’s heart fluttered a little doubt, but still did not move to buy the ticket, and then watched the conductor again like a warrior in the thousands of troops left and right to squeeze back into the crowd.
The next step was to wait silently for the bus to arrive.
But just then, he suddenly felt what seemed to be a line of sight coming from nearby.
The gaze was very brief, it seemed to just accidentally swept himself a glance and then quickly shifted away, however, Duncan’s senses were exceptionally sharp, he not only felt that this line of sight was indeed “pointing” at him, even when the line of sight was shifted away, he even vaguely felt a kind of… fear and avoidance flavor … which made him immediately curious. …a flavor of fear and avoidance, which immediately made him curiously follow the feeling in his heart to look.
In the next second, he saw a short figure that was trying to dodge backward in the middle of the crowded passengers at the rear of the carriage.
He saw that figure, and that figure saw him – so the other person instantly stopped and stood stiffly in place, as if he didn’t even dare to dodge anymore.
It was a girl in a black dress, looking about Nina’s age, with a peculiar collar around her neck with a tiny bell hanging from it ……
It was Shirley.
Duncan instantly raised his eyebrows, never imagining that things could coincide to such an extent, and then he squeezed over in the direction of the girl – the latter had completely stiffened up by this time, and was just looking at Duncan, who was walking towards him with a face full of nervousness and even a little bit of fear, not to mention continuing to dodge, and didn’t even dare to turn his head anymore.
Duncan just like this slowly came in front of the other party, smiled and greeted the girl, “Hello again – at this time of the day, are you going to school?”
Shirley made enough courage to squeeze out a smile, although she had once expressed her intention to hug the big brother’s thighs in front of Dog with a big grin, but at this time, in the situation where she had already realized what was scary about Duncan, she smiled even harder than she cried, “Hello you ……… …”
(End of chapter)